Dick Grayson (Nexus)
Origin Richard "Dick" Grayson was born to John and Mary Grayson, a duo of acrobats working at Haley's Circus who had the stage name the Flying Graysons. And he followed in the family business, from an early age starting his training and soon afterwards joined his parents in their act. When Dick was sixteen years old Haley's Circus made a return trip to Gotham City for a charity celebration being held by Wayne Enterprises. The notorious Gotham Criminal the Penguin, whom has close past personal ties to the circus, organized a plan for his men to spring him from prison on show night and get their revenge on the circus. They snuck in and took hostages, beginning a large scale robbery of the audience members as well as placing powerful explosive charges around the big top tent as well as the fairgrounds. John sees this happening and with Batman manages to subdue the men holding he and his family hostage. He told Mary to take Dick and escape from the circus in case he fails. Mary leaves Dick with Batman and tries to reason with her husband and also thinks that she may be able to convince Penguin to stop as she recognized him as a friend she had had in her younger years. While Batman tries to get Dick out of the tent they are ambushed by Killer Croc, forcing Batman into a fight. Allowing Dick to try and run after his parents. John reached Penguin first and they got into a fight over the detonator for the explosives. John managed to smash it, but shortly afterwards is shot in the side by Penguin with his machine gun umbrella. He prepared to finish off John, who had been an old enemy of is, when Mary got in the way and tried to reason with him. To far gone through the hurt he felt through his interactions with the family he shot both John and Mary to death, Dick getting close enough just in time to see it happen. Penguin ran away from the scene as Dick ran to his parents' bodies and fell to his knees crying. Batman then saw the scene and faced flashbacks to the night his own parents had been murdered by the man who would become the Joker. Many of Penguin's men were captured as the police arrived, though he himself had managed to escape. Jim Gordon arrived and like he had done with Bruce when he was a rookie comforted Dick. Bruce then arrived to offer his condolences as well. Because of what happened Haley's Circus was disbanded and Dick entered the Gotham City foster care system where he would be put into the custody of Jack and Janet Drake. Who like Wayne were socialites and had attended the tragic circus show. They also had a kid son named Tim who was very fond of Dick after watching him perform and treated him like a brother. Dick however was very distant and defiant despite the attempts to help him, and one night decided to go out to try and find out what he could about the Penguin. He eventually got caught spying on a couple of his thugs and got into a fight, using his acrobatic skills. He was eventually subdued but was rescued by Batman who was also on the Penguin's trail. Batman took Dick to the Batcave to treat his wounds and they talked about what was going on, and Batman decided to try and dissuade Dick from continuing his search of the Penguin and leave it to him. He was also sent to youth reformatory group therapy where he befriended a fellow troubled teen around his age named Jason Todd. Category:Characters